Climate change effects on the U.S. West Coast's undersea kelp forests. Life in ice. Extreme rainfall patterns and how they affect Midwest crops. These are just a few of the topics scientists affiliated with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network will discuss at the upcoming American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting, Dec. 12-16.

Scientists funded by NSF's Geosciences and Biological Sciences directorates conducted research at two dozen NSF LTER sites around the world in ecosystems ranging from deserts and grasslands to coral reefs and Arctic tundra. LTER researchers work to identify the factors driving future environmental change, and to map potential ecosystem responses that could result.

Presentations at AGU will address social and ecological change; ecosystem vulnerability, resilience and adaptability; and why long-term data are essential to understanding and predicting future responses to natural and human-caused environmental changes.

For example, scientists at the Kellogg Biological Station LTER site in Michigan conducted a multi-year experiment to look at how extreme rainfall patterns affect nitrogen leaching from row-crop ecosystems in the upper Midwest, and to what extent tillage (the preparation of land for growing crops) might moderate these effects. As global surface temperatures rise, rainfall in heavy storm events is increasing in many areas, including the U.S. Midwest, a major agricultural region. That may result in changes in nutrients in soils, especially in agricultural ecosystems.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2016, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.